The White House press secretary shot down speculation that
President Barack Obama's endorsement of Hillary Clinton could
present a conflict of interest with the ongoing FBI
probe into the former secretary of state's use of a private email
server.

At a press
conference Thursday, Josh Earnest insisted that investigators
would remain impartial, despite the president's endorsement of
the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

"There is not," Earnest replied, when a reporter asked him if the
endorsement could create a conflict with the FBI investigation.

"The president made clear that that investigation is one that is
being conducted independent of any sort of political
interference," he added. "That is a principle to which the
president is resolutely committed."

Earnest continued:

The reason that the president feels confident that he can go out
and make this endorsement and record a video in which he
describes his strong support for Secretary Clinton's campaign is
that he knows the people who are conducting the investigation
aren't going to be swayed by any political interference. They
aren't going to be swayed by political forces. That they know
that their investigation should be guided by the facts and that
they should follow the evidence where it leads. And the president
has complete confidence that that's exactly what they'll do.

The reporter pressed on, asking whether an FBI agent working on
the investigation who "hears this president speak openly about
how he wants Clinton to succeed him" would "take that as some
indication of how the president wants to see this case resolved."

Earnest again denied this.

"I think that those career prosecutors understand that they have
a job to do," Earnest said. "And that that job that they are
supposed to do, which is to follow the facts, to pursue the
evidence to a logical conclusion, that is a job that they are
responsible for doing without any sort of political
interference."

Clinton has maintained that she has no concern about the
possibility of getting indicted.

She
said earlier this week that there is "absolutely" no chance
the ongoing FBI investigation will hurt her presidential bid.